Chris Matthews' In-Law Arrested In Multimillion Dollar Pot Bust

01/04/2011 03:10 pm ET
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Updated
May 25, 2011

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Chris Matthews' in-law has been arrested in connection with an $8.1 million pot bust, the Cape Cod Times reports.

Federal agents intercepted a boat coming to the U.S. from Jamaica six weeks ago and seized 4,497 pounds of marijuana, the paper writes. They traced the pot back to Dartmouth, Mass, where the captain and owner of the boat, James Ormonde Staveley-O'Carroll, lives. Staveley-O'Carroll's daughter, Sarah, is married to Matthews' son, Michael. Staveley-O'Carroll was targeted as the ringleader of the plan to bring the drugs to America.

He is being held in Mississippi and is awaiting trial along with two co-defendants. They are charged with conspiracy to possess controlled substance with intent to distribute, conspiracy to import controlled substance with intent to distribute, possession of controlled substance with intent to distribute and importation of controlled substance with intent to distribute.

The Times reports that, according to a federal affidavit, the drug bust is "the result of an investigation by Homeland Security agents and stems from information provided by a confidential informant that the Sarah Moira was smuggling about 4,000 pounds of marijuana from Jamaica to the U.S."

Staveley-O'Carroll's co-defendants told investigators that he hired them to help prepare the Sarah Moira for a trip to Jamaica to pick up the pot. They alleged that two boats arrived at the Sarah Moira with bags full of drugs, which they transferred to the boat bound for the U.S.